a
catch.”
“Nothing
ever is with her. Did you see my father?”
“Oh
yes. I’m going to stay the night, see my mother, and my father unless I can
avoid it, then I’m off.”
“Wish
I could come with you.”
A
sudden noise took Ray’s attention away from her. It sounded like a door closing
on the opposite side of the poolroom.
“Did
you hear that?” he said.
Paula
shook her head. “This place makes weird noises. I come here a lot. I usually
swim nude.” She stood, and her hands fluttered behind her back. “Shall I show
you?”
Something
quite large splashed into the water. Paula moved hesitantly towards Ray, who
took hold of her arm.
“Stay
close to me,” he said.
Beneath
the blue tiled water of the pool something white was swimming towards them. It
looked like a skinless seal, but the speed it was moving, and the wake it was
producing, made it seem much more dangerous.
While
they watched, fascinated, neither of them noticed a second figure keeping to
the shadows near the wall. It was dressed in a flowing white robe.
Ray
pulled Paula behind him, conscious she was shivering.
The
surface of the water closest to them broke and a dark haired woman in her early
twenties pushed out her head. Her hair was plastered to her face and the water
streamed over her shoulders, but Ray could see she was beautiful.
“Recognize
her?” he said to Paula. He hoped she might be a party guest, fooling around,
but he wasn’t confident she was.
The
woman hauled herself effortlessly out of the pool and stood, dripping, naked,
in front of them. She was slim but perfectly formed; breasts with droplets of
water like diamonds scattered around the dark nipples.
“She’s
no one I know,” Paula said.
Ray
glanced around. A white open fronted cabinet held towels and some magazines. He
grabbed a towel and threw it at the woman. “You’ll be needing this.”
The
woman let the towel hit her body, barely looking down as it puddled at her feet.
Paula
moved from behind Ray. This woman was irritating her. “This is my party, and
you’re not invited.”
“What,
neither of us?”
Ray
whirled round at the sound of the voice. A second woman, dressed in a white
robe, stood in the half shadows.
Paula’s
moment of bravado was gone; she edged closer to her uncle, feeling nervously
for his hand.
“Okay,
ladies,” Ray said. “Time for you to leave.”
The
naked woman walked calmly across to her friend and took the robe she was
offered. She draped it over her head and shook it over her body, still wet from
the pool.
“We
are leaving,” one of them said. “But you’re coming with us.”
“I
don’t think so,” Ray said.
The
woman smiled. “Not you, sailor boy. Her.”
Paula
realized she was pointing at her and shrank against Ray, snuggling in as
closely as she could. If she could disappear inside him she would have done.
Ray
put his arm around Paula. “You can try.”
Stock picked up his cigar, took a long and satisfying
draw on it, and blew smoke in the general direction of the fat man.
“My
terms,” he said.
“I
shall have to discuss these with…”
“You’ll
have to get your orders from Romodon , I know that.
I’ve heard what he has planned. This is what I offer him. Cash,
substantial amounts,